Jeannie Yandel talks with Mary Ellen Stone about a new Seattle Police Department policy to conduct DNA testing on all sexual assault evidence kits. Stone is executive director of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center. Yandel also talks with KUOW reporter Amy Radil about SPD's new policy.

Two death penalty cases kicked off this week in King County Superior Court – both involve an insanity defense to some degree.

In one, Joseph McEnroe is charged with six counts of aggravated murder for teaming up with his girlfriend to kill her family, including two children, in 2007. McEnroe had asked to use the insanity defense, but a trial judge wouldn't allow it.

In the second trial, Christopher Monfort is saying he wasn't sane when he killed Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton in 2009.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson formally weighed in Monday on a federal lawsuit related to immigration. The suit challenges President Obama’s plan to offer legal protections to millions of undocumented immigrants.

Marcie Sillman talks to Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes about the City Council's consideration of changing the name of the crime "patronizing a prostitute" to "sexual exploitation."

Also, Dr. Melinda Chateauvert, author of "Sex Workers Unite: A History Of The Movement From Stonewall to SlutWalk," explains why she believes the use of the term "sexual exploitation" to describe the crime is wrong.

Sara Lerner speaks with Robert Boruchowitz, one of the lead authors of a new Seattle University study released Wednesday that finds that Washington state cases where the death penalty is pursued cost the justice system a million dollars more on average.

Seattle attorney Jeff Robinson recently addressed a gathering at the University Of Washington School Of Law. It had been just over a week since a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.

Robinson titled his talk "You Can Observe a Lot Just by Watching: The Killing of Michael Brown and the Transparent Grand Jury Investigation."

A Muslim advocacy group in Seattle is calling on the FBI to look into a possible hate crime against a Somali taxi driver. According to Seattle Police, the attacker reportedly told the driver “you are a terrorist” and “I will shoot you,” then repeatedly punched him in the face.

“The severity of the incident makes this a more serious matter,” said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) in Washington state, which is part of a national organization. “The person was attacked by three people who left him bloodied and unconscious.”